Geoffrey
Of Monmouth'Historia Regum Brittaniae'
The History of the Kings of Britain

BOOK
VII.

CHAPTER
III.

THE
PROPHECY OF MERLIN.

As
Vortegirn, king of the Britons, was sitting upon the bank
of the drained pond, the two dragons, one of which was white,
the other red, came forth, and ap­proaching one another,
began a terrible fight, and cast forth fire with their breath.
But the white dragon had the advantage, and made the other
fly to the end of the lake. And he, for grief at his flight,
renewed the assault upon his pursuer, and forced him to
retire. After this battle of the dragons, the king commanded
Ambrose Merlin to tell him what it portended. Upon which
he, bursting into tears, delivered what his prophetical
spirit suggested to him, as follows:-

“Woe
to the red dragon, for his banishment hasteneth on. His
lurking holes shall be seized by the white dragon, which
signifies the Saxons whom you invited over; but the red
denotes the British nation, which shall be oppressed by
the white. Therefore shall its mountains be levelled as
the valleys, and the rivers of the valleys shall run with
blood. The exercise of religion shall be destroyed, and
churches be laid open to ruin. At last the oppressed shall
prevail, and oppose the cruelty of foreigners. For a boar
of Cornwall shall give his assistance, and trample their
necks under his feet. The islands of the ocean shall be
subject to his power, and he shall possess the forests of
Gaul. The house of Romulus shall dread his courage, and
his end shall be doubtful. He shall he celebrated in the
mouths of the people and his exploits shall be food to those
that relate them. Six of his posterity shall sway the sceptre,
but after them shall arise a German worm. He shall be advanced
by a sea-wolf, whom the woods of Africa shall accompany.
Religion shall be again abolished, and there shall be a
translation of the metro­politan sees. The dignity of London
shall adorn Dorobernia, and the seventh pastor of York shall
be resorted to in the kingdom of Armorica. Menevia shall
put on the pall of the City of Legions, and a preacher of
Ireland shall be dumb on account of an infant growing in
the womb. It shall rain a shower of blood, and a raging
famine shall afflict mankind. When these things happen,
the red one shall be grieved; but when his fatigue is over,
shall grow strong. Then shall mis­fortunes hasten upon the
white one, and the buildings of his gardens shall be pulled
down. Seven that sway the sceptre shall be killed, one of
whom shall become a saint. The wombs of mothers shall ripped
up, and infants he abortive. There shall be a most grievous
punishment of men, that the natives may be restored. He
that shall do these things shall put on the brazen man,
and upon a brazen horse shall for a long time guard the
gates of London. After this shall the red dragon return
to his proper manners, and turn his rage upon himself. Therefore
shall the revenge of the Thunderer show itself, for every
field shall disappoint the husbandmen. Mortality shall snatch
away the people, and make a desolation over all countries.
The re­mainder shall quit their native soil, and make foreign
plantations. A blessed king shall prepare a fleet, and shall
be reckoned the twelfth in the court among the saints. There
shall he a miserable desolation of the kingdom, and the
floors of the harvests shall return to the fruitful forests.
The white dragon shall rise again, and invite over a daughter
of Germany. Our gardens shall be again replenished with
foreign seed, and the red one shall pine away at the end
of the pond. After that shall the German worm be crowned,
and the brazen prince buried. He has his bounds assigned
him, which he shall not be able to pass. For a hundred and
fifty years he shall continue in trouble and subjection,
but shall bear sway three hundred. Then shall the North
wind rise against him, and shall snatch away the flowers
which the west wind produced. There shall be gilding in
the temples, nor shall the edge of the sword cease. The
German dragon shall hardly get to his holes, be­cause the
revenge of his treason shall overtake him. At last he shall
flourish for a little time, but the decimation of Neustria
shall hurt him. For a people in wood and in iron coats shall
come, and revenge upon him his wickedness. They shall restore
the ancient inhabitants to their dwellings and there shall
be an open destruction of foreigners. The seed of the white
dragon shall be swept out of our gardens, and the remainder
of his generation shall be decimated. They shall bear the
yoke of slavery, and wound their mother with spades and
ploughs. After this shall succeed two dragons, whereof one
shall be killed with the sting of envy, but the other shall
return under the shadow of a name. Then shall succeed a
lion of justice, at whose roar the Gallican towers and the
island dragons shall tremble. In those days gold shall be
squeezed from the lily and the nettle, and silver shall
flow from the hoofs of bellowing cattle. The frizled shall
put on various fleeces, and the outward habit denote the
inward parts. The feet of barkers shall be cut off; wild
beasts shall enjoy peace: mankind shall be grieved at their
punishment: the form of commerce shall be divided: the half
shall be round. The ravenousness of kites shall be de­stroyed,
and the teeth of wolves blunted. The lion’s whelps shall
be transformed into sea-fishes; and an eagle shall build
her nest upon Mount Aravius. Vene­dotia shall grow red with
the blood of mothers, and the house of Corineus kill six
brethren. The island shall be wet with night-tears; so that
all shall he provoked to all things. Woe to thee, Neustria,
because the lion's brain shall be poured upon thee; and
he shall be banished with shattered limbs from his native
soil. Posterity shall endeavour to fly above the highest
places; but the favour of new comers shall be exalted. Piety
shall hurt the possessor of things got by impiety, till
he shall have put on his Father: therefore, being armed
with the teeth of a boar, he shall ascend above the tops
of mountains, and the shadow of him that wears a helmet.
Albania shall be enraged, and assembling her neighbours,
shall be employed in shedding blood. There shall he put
into her jaws a bridle that shall be made on the coast of
Armorica. The eagle of the broken covenant shall gild it
over, and rejoice in her third nest. The roaring whelps
shall watch, and leaving the woods, shall hunt within the
walls of cities. They shall make no small slaughter of those
that oppose them, and shall cut off the tongues of bulls.
They shall load the necks of roaring lions with chains,
and restore the times of their ancestors. Then from the
first to the fourth, from the fourth to the third, from
the third to the second, the thumb shall roll in oil. The
sixth shall overturn the walls of Ireland, and change the
woods into a plain. He shall reduce several parts to one,
and be crowned with the head of a lion. His beginning shall
lay open to wandering affection, but his end shall carry
him up to the blessed, who are above. For he shall restore
the seats of saints in their countries, and settle pastors
in convenient places. Two cities he shall invest with two
palls, and shall bestow virgin-presents upon virgins. He
shall merit by this the favour of the Thunderer, and shall
he placed among the saints. From him shall proceed a lynx
penetrating all things, who shall be bent upon the ruin
of his own nation; for through him Neustria shall lose both
islands, and be deprived of its ancient dignity. Then shall
the natives return back to the island; for there shall arise
a dissension among foreigners. Also a hoary old man, sitting
upon a snow-white horse, shall turn the course of the river
Periron, and shall measure out a mill upon it with a white
rod. Cadwallader shall call upon Conan, and take Albania
into alliance. Then shall there be a slaughter of fo­reigners;
then shall the rivers run with blood. Then shall break forth
the fountains of Armorica, and they shall be crowned with
the diadem of Brutus. Cambria shall he filled with joy;
and the oaks of Cornwall shall flourish. The island shall
be called by the name of Brutus; and the name given it by
foreigners shall be abolished. From Conan shall proceed
a warlike boar, that shall exercise the sharpness of his
tusks within the Gallic woods. For he shall cut down all
the larger oaks, and shall be a defence to the smaller.
The Arabians and Africans shall dread him; for he shall
pursue his furious course to the farther part of Spain.
There shall succeed the goat of the Venereal Castle, having
golden horns and a silver beard, who shall breathe such
a cloud out of his nostrils, as shall darken the whole surface
of the island. There shall be peace in his time; and corn
shall abound by reason of the fruitfulness of the soil.
Women shall become serpents in their gait, and all their
motions stall be full of pride. The camp of Venus shall
he restored; nor shall the arrows of Cupid cease to wound.
The fountain of a river shall be turned into blood; and
two kings shall fight a duel at Stafford for a lioness.
Luxury shall overspread the whole ground; and fornication
not cease to debauch mankind. All these things shall three
ages see; till the buried kings shall be exposed to public
view in the city of London. Famine shall again return; mortality
shall return; and the inhabitants shall grieve for the destruc­tion
of their cities. Then shall come the board of commerce,
who shall recall the scattered flocks to the pasture they
had lost. His breast shall he food to the hungry, and his
tongue drink to the thirsty. Out of his mouth shall flow
rivers, that shall water the parched jaws of men. After
this shall be produced a tree upon the Tower of London,
whichhaving no more than three branches, shall
overshadow the surface of the whole island with the breadth
of its leaves. Its adversary, the North wind, shall come
upon it, and with its noxious blast shall snatch away the
third branch; but the two remaining ones shall possess its
place, till they shall destroy one another by the multitude
of their leaves: and then shall it obtain the place of those
two, and shall give sustenance to birds of foreign nations.
It shall he esteemed hurtful to native fowls; for they shall
not be able to fly freely for fear of its shadow. There
shall succeed the ass ofwickedness, swift against the goldsmiths; but slow
against the ravenousness of wolves. In those days the oaks
of the forests shall burn, and acorns grow upon the branches
of teil trees. The Severn sea shall discharge itself through
seven mouths, and the river Uske burn seven months. Fishes
shall die with the heat thereof; and of them shall be engendered
serpents. The baths of Badon shall grow cold and their salubrious
waters engender death. London shall mourn for the death
of twenty thousand; and the river Thames shall be turned
into blood. The monks in their cowls shall be forced to
marry, and their cry shall be heard upon the mountains of
the Alps."